Affordable Space Adventures was, like Freedom Planet, another one of the recent Nintendo Humble Bundle games. It’s a game I’d intended to buy at some point anyway, but I just never got round to it.
Taking control of a tiny spaceship lost on a strange planet inhabited by long forgotten machines, you have to pilot around taking care not to get spotted, crushed, frozen or lasered. As your damaged ship starts to self-repair, additional systems come online, and eventually its fully functional with two different drive systems, a scanner, assorted types of landing gear and so on. Each on-board system generates noise, heat and/or electricity, and the machines you come across are variously sensitive to these, so you have to be careful which ones you activate, and how you use them.
This makes the game a bit more of a puzzle game than I was expecting. Tweaking power outputs and turning off unnecessary systems using the “heads-down display” on the Gamepad is genius, watching your outputs to ensure you can safely glide past a sentry or a mine undetected. Sometimes you need to coast along on minimal (or no!) power, other times you have to switch from your fuel engine to electric engine, or make use of your heat shutters to appear cooler to enemies. It’s very clever, really.
Later on, environmental hazards start playing havok with your ship’s computer, changing settings for you or completely disabling certain abilities, so you have to pay attention to your computer at all times.
It’s a beautiful looking game, and quite unlike anything else I’ve played. It’s hard to see how it would work properly on any system other than the Wii U (expect, perhaps the 3DS at a push), and it shows just what kind of thing can be done with Nintendo’s unusual hardware. It’s a shame more games don’t. There’s a multiplayer mode too, which is how the game was really designed to play, with up to three players taking over different aspects of the ship – a pilot, and engineer and a science officer – but I played through solo without too much difficulty. Apart from Level 37, the final section of which took over an hour’s worth of attempts. I scraped through eventually. Affordable Space Adventures is an essential game for any Wii U owner.
This week I’ve mainly been playing old games again. And one relatively new one. And one new-old one. And HYRULE WARRIORS, obviously.
Play
HYRULE WARRIORS (Wii U)
Still slowly progressing through the Twilight Adventure map with my daughter. Well, quite quickly really, it’s just that the map is huge so we’re not making much of an impact overall. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of this game.
Freedom Planet (Wii U)
I’d actually just started this when I posted last week, but quickly finished it off soon afterwards. I wrote a lot more about it on my Gaming Diary, but to summarise: it was good, borrowed a lot from Sonic, but ended up being its own thing.
Affordable Space Adventures (Wii U)
Everyone has made the joke, but as this was in the Nintendo Humble Bundle, it became Affordable Affordable Space Adventures. I completed it, and what a lovely mostly-puzzle game it was.
Hudson Hawk (GB)
I literally have no idea why I decided to play this, and I certainly didn’t anticipate completing it, but it was very easy and pretty short so completing it “just happened”. It wasn’t that bad a game, actually.
Streets of Rage 3 (MD)
I hadn’t realised, or I’d mis-remembered, how hard this is. Substantially harder than either of the previous two games, anyway. Completed it, but it took several attempts, annoying since on an earlier attempt I was on for the good ending, but messed up that bit on the attempt when I actually finished it. It’s good, but Streets of Rage 2 is better.
Various other retro games
Including Sonic 3 and Knuckles (MD) which I’m on my way to completing – I have all the Super Emerald, just have a few levels to finish off now. Also played James Pond (MD) but have no idea what to do on level 2, True Lies (GB) which is terrible and hard, and Pickaxe Pete (Videopac) which is sort of like Donkey Kong only the ladders appear and disappear randomly making it impossible to play.
Want
Can you guess? Go on. That’s right! No Man’s Sky and Lego Marvel Avengers (both PS4)! And that new Paper Mario game for the Wii U. And a Nintendo NX.
Bin
True Lies (GB) I suppose. It’s not its fault though.
Expense
I have bought nothing.
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Pingback: Play Want Bin Expense: 2016-05-09 - deKay's Blog
In 2016, I completed a whopping 110 games. My previous record, because of course I’ve been keeping count, was 84 in 2015. You’d think with a number like that, I’d finally be on top of my backlog, right? Ahahahahano.
I didn’t anticipate completing that many. Like in previous years, I did strive to finish the RetroCollect 52 Game Challenge (which I managed before the end of June) and then expanded that to 104 games just for a laugh (and I sorted that by mid-December), but of course I had to go and beat that too, didn’t I?
There may be some arguments over what constitutes a “game”, and what counts as “completed”. There’s no hard and fast rule, whatever feels right for a title, usually. However, normally a game is “something you play” and “completed” is “reached the final goal”, “got all the achievements” or “watched the end credits” as appropriate.
DLC and addons are usually classed as separate games even if technically they’re not – like Life is Strange episodes, or the Lego Dimensions level packs.
Anyway, here’s the full list of 110:
Fallout 4(PS4 15/01/2016)
Batman Returns(Lynx 24/01/2016)
Grim Fandango Remastered(PS4/Vita 30/01/2016)
Thomas Was Alone: Benjamin’s Flight(Vita 30/01/2016)
Hatoful Boyfriend(Vita 31/01/2016)
Nova-111(PS4 15/02/2016)
Bayonetta(Wii U 15/02/2016)
Sonic the Hedgehog(MS 28/02/2016)
Street Fighter Alpha(GBC 28/02/2016)
Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush(Wii U 05/03/2016)
Disney Infinity 3.0(PS4 06/03/2016)
ToeJam and Earl(MD 10/03/2016)
Midnight Resistance(MD 12/03/2016)
Mega-lo-Mania(MD 12/03/2016)
Castle of Illusion(MS 12/03/2016)
Midnight Resistance(Spec 15/03/2016)
Land of Illusion(MS 16/03/2016)
Midnight Resistance(C64 17/03/2016)
Strider(MD 17/03/2016)
Legend of Illusion(MS 19/03/2016)
Batman(MD 19/03/2016)
Castlevania: The New Generation(MD 20/03/2016)
Hyrule Warriors Legends(3DS 28/03/2016)
Puggsy(MCD 02/04/2016)
Time Gal(MCD 02/04/2016)
The Legend of Galahad(MD 03/04/2016)
Lego Lord of the Rings(360 04/04/2016)
Broforce(PS4 05/04/2016)
My Nintendo Picross – The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess(3DS 09/04/2016)
Psycho Fox(MS 10/04/2016)
The Witness(PS4 24/04/2016)
Firewatch(PS4 27/04/2016)
The Beginner’s Guide(Mac 01/05/2016)
Freedom Planet(Wii U 02/05/2016)
Affordable Space Adventures(Wii U 06/05/2016)
Hudson Hawk(GB 07/05/2016)
Streets of Rage 3(MD 07/05/2016)
Sonic 3 & Knuckles(MD 08/05/2016)
LocoRoco Cocoreccho(PS3 13/05/2016)
Magical Flying Hat Turbo Adventure(MD 14/05/2016)
Rainbow Islands(MS 14/05/2016)
Gauntlet 4(MD 18/05/2016)
Star Fox Guard(Wii U 22/05/2016)
Emily is Away(Mac 22/05/2016)
Quiet, Please!(Wii U 26/05/2016)
Quiet Christmas(Wii U 28/05/2016)
Vacation Vexation(Wii U 28/05/2016)
Candy, Please!(Wii U 29/05/2016)
Star Fox Zero(Wii U 03/06/2016)
Teddy Boy(MS 04/06/2016)
James Pond II: Codename Robocod(MD 04/06/2016)
Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars(MS 04/06/2016)
Asterix(MS 11/06/2016)
The Lucky Dime Caper(MS 12/06/2016)
Assassin’s Creed Unity(PS4 13/06/2016)
Kirby: Planet Robobot(3DS 21/06/2016)
The Temple of No(Mac 28/06/2016)
Battlefield 4(PS4 29/06/2016)
Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse(3DS 02/07/2016)
There’s Poop In My Soup(Mac 02/07/2016)
Gunpoint(Mac 29/07/2016)
Missing: An Interactive Thriller – Episode One(Mac 30/07/2016)
McPixel(Mac 03/08/2016)
Beware Planet Earth(PC 15/08/2016)
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE(Wii U 16/08/2016)
Sakura Spirit(Mac 17/08/2016)
StreetPass Trader(3DS 15/09/2016)
StreetPass Slot Racer(3DS 16/09/2016)
Running Battle(MS 18/09/2016)
Ranma 1/2(SNES 18/09/2016)
StreetPass Explorers(3DS 19/09/2016)
StreetPass Ninja(3DS 21/09/2016)
No Man’s Sky(PS4 10/10/2016)
StreetPass Chef(3DS 11/10/2016)
Chase: Cold Case Investigations ~Distant Memories~(3DS 16/10/2016)
Catherine(PS3 17/10/2016)
Pokémon Y(3DS 25/10/2016)
Year Walk(Wii U 28/10/2016)
Gargoyle’s Quest(3DS 30/10/2016)
Actual Sunlight(Vita 02/11/2016)
3D Fantasy Zone(3DS 05/11/2016)
3D Puyo Puyo 2(3DS 06/11/2016)
3D Thunderblade(3DS 06/11/2016)
3D Altered Beast(3DS 06/11/2016)
One Night Stand(Mac 11/11/2016)
3D Power Drift(3DS 12/11/2016)
3D Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa(3DS 12/11/2016)
3D Galaxy Force II(3DS 13/11/2016)
PaRappa the Rapper 2(PS4 13/11/2016)
Virginia(PS4 15/11/2016)
3D Maze Walker(3DS 17/11/2016)
3D Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa (MS Ver.)(3DS 17/11/2016)
3D Sonic the Hedgehog(3DS 19/11/2016)
Lego Marvel Avengers(PS4 21/11/2016)
Retro City Rampage DX(3DS 21/11/2016)
Apartment 666(Mac 26/11/2016)
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter(PS4 26/11/2016)
Super Fantasy Zone(MD 26/11/2016)
Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure(NGPC 27/11/2016)
SNK vs Capcom: Match of the Millennium(NGPC 27/11/2016)
Sonic Triple Trouble(3DS 07/12/2016)
Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey Remastered(PS4 10/12/2016)
Sonic Blast(3DS 11/12/2016)
Lego Dimensions(PS4 15/12/2016)
Box Box Boy!(3DS 23/12/2016)
Ultratron(Wii U 24/12/2016)
Lego Dimensions: Back to the Future(PS4 26/12/2016)
Lego Dimensions: Adventure Time(PS4 28/12/2016)
Lego Dimensions: The Simpsons(PS4 30/12/2016)
Lego Dimensions: Midway Arcade(PS4 31/12/2016)
Now, will I repeat that in 2017? I doubt it. I’m not even going to try.
Oh, and I’ll write some more about some of my favourites in another post another time!
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